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Lucasfilm’s second Star Wars spinoff film, a prequel centering around young Han Solo, is now in principal photography ahead of its scheduled May 2018 premiere. Obviously, the project required the studio to recast some classic franchise characters with younger actors, and the duo of Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover are locked in to play scoundrels Han and Lando Calrissian. But they aren’t the only newcomers injecting new life into familiar faces of a galaxy far, far away....

Updated prototype issues, below. See also our comparison of the 11-inch model with Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio. I can never understand how Apple can make such fantastic tablets, and such terrible keyboards for them. Ok, perhaps ‘terrible’ is an exaggeration, but the latest Smart Keyboard Folio for the 12.9-inch iPad is – like the first – a distinctly average typing experience, and a pretty cheap-looking hunk of plastic … It’s particularly inexplicable to me when Brydge has long since shown how to do it right....

Incase is launching a new laptop backpack this week called ICON Lite ($99, pictured right) that packs MacBooks up to 15-inches, any iPad, and more for under $100. ICON Lite joins Incase’s existing lineup of ICON backpacks that also includes ICON ($199, pictured left) and ICON Slim ($149) to create three sizes at three price points. Check out our hands-on with Incase ICON and the new ICON Lite below: ICON Lite is the first ICON backpack to be priced below $100 since the collection was introduced almost 16 years ago and one of Incase’s first sub-$100 backpacks since the company was founded 20 years ago....

I get good battery life with my iPhone X as is, and my home office lifestyle means I’m never that far from a plug, so I’m admittedly not the target market for a battery case. Nevertheless, the announcement of Apple’s Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR piqued my interest. I wanted to dip my toes in to see what using a Smart Battery Case is like. Read after the jump for some of my takeaways, and also be sure to check out our review from earlier in the week for a more thorough walkthrough of what’s new....

During its WWDC keynote this morning, Apple announced new “Slide Over” and side-by-side features that allow users to run two iPad apps in a single window. The features, which we originally reported on more than a year ago, are similar to a feature also available in the latest Mac operating system, OS X El Capitan. Support for running multiple apps on the iPad comes in a couple of different ways. Slide Over allows users to place an app along the side of the interface, while running the main app at full iPad size....

The casting choices for the Harry Potter movies were undeniably close to the character counterparts in the books. Each actor and actress thoroughly embodied their respective characters and brought them to life in a magical way. However, there were some little differences between the characters in the book and their film versions that we just can’t help but point out. For most people who have just seen the movies, these minor details don’t really make a major difference....

In the world of Harry Potter, the Patronus charm is one of the most powerful tools in a wizard’s arsenal. It can be used to repel the creepy, soul-sucking dementors and takes the form of something meaningful to the wizard who casts it. Now, we all know that Snape’s Patronus was a doe because he was still in love with Lily Potter, whose Patronus was also a Doe. However, there are plenty of interesting Patronus details JK Rowling and the producers of the Harry Potter films included that you may have missed....

The relationship between Bill and Fleur isn’t one that gets a ton of focus in the Harry Potter series as neither of them are the main characters. However, in many ways, their relationship is one of the strongest of the series, and their romance grows even as a lot of horrible things are going on around them. These two seemed to get along really well, and the only issues they ever had were because of people around them not because of any incompatibility....

Following Ingress and Pokémon Go, formerly Google-owned Niantic’s next augmented reality experience is Wizards Unite. Leveraging Harry Potter’s Wizarding World, the premise of the game was fully detailed today, with pre-registration now available on Google Play for Android. Created with WB Games San Francisco, Wizards Unite includes content and characters from the original seven-part book/film franchise and the in-progress five-movie Fantastic Beasts. Like Pokémon Go, the Foundables magical objects that need to be contained are more likely to appear at real-world locations, like parks, monuments, and libraries....

. For those who want to listen to the Adam Lashinsky’ book “Inside Apple,“ Audible has a special 14-day trial free membership where you can download a free book. We profiled the same offer for the Steve Jobs biography, which was very popular. The book is playable on the web or iOS devices. Bonus: The book is narrated by author Adam Lashinsky, and the sample is available here. Audible is a great service for those who enjoy listening to their books and membership is $14....

I. Who was behind GhostNet? – evidence, allegations, denials Up to now is unknown who was in control of the GhostNet. Since the exact exfiltrated data was never been recovered, the investigators were unable to make any deduction based on the question, to whom would this information have some value? However, what can give away the hackers’ intention, and perhaps even answer of who is behind the malevolent act, are the technical characteristics of a concrete attack, as well as the subject of interest and the identity of the target (Goetz & Rosenbach, 2009)....

. Apple climbed into the list of top 10 places to work in 2012, alongside fellow technology giants Google and Facebook, according to a new Glassdoor survey. The fourth annual Employees’ Choice award highlights 50 of the best workplaces. The findings are measured through company employees’ survey responses on Glassdoor.com. “The reviews are in,” said the career community website in its Dec. 14 press release. “Employees have spoken, revealing the best companies to work for in 2012; and, they love working at some of the biggest tech, science and management consulting companies in the nation…...

Just about two months after Apple Card became available to the public, the CEO of Goldman Sachs — Apple’s bank partner — shared today in an interview how happy he is with the launch of the product, saying he thinks it’s the “most successful credit card launch ever.” There have been some doubts about the profitability of Apple Card, with Citibank reportedly abandoning a deal with Apple over the concern for its new credit card before Goldman Sachs sealed the deal....

Nexus 4 Phone First in the line-up is the Nexus 4 Android smartphone. This handset comes from collaboration with the hardware manufacturer LG, despite the fact that Google could have easily manufactured it through it’s self-owned manufacturer Motorola. With a 4.7 inch display the Nexus 4 comes in at roughly the same size as Samsung’s latest Galaxy SIII phone, but is still dwarfed by the the larger Samsung Note II phablet....

The Guardian reports that Apple has started looking for carrier partners in the UK. Apple is understood to have approached several UK mobile phone networks, including Orange, about selling its forthcoming tablet computer to British customers. As we reported earlier, this late move may mean that Apple waits a few months before it sends the tablet overseas. The Guardian says: British gadget fans will have to wait until much later in the spring, according to UK sources, but the price of the device could be reduced if Apple can persuade a mobile phone company to subsidise it....

Essential brought their first smartphone back in 2017 and since then, users have been waiting for their second-generation phone. Moreover, there have been rumors that Essential will unveil their second phone soon, but that seems unlikely. However, the Essential Phone update cycle is among the best and it has been receiving the Android updates alongside Google Pixel devices. But there are people who like to root and get their devices modded according to their needs....

Russian blog iGuides.ru points us to a new hack for Apple TV users that brings Russian subscription TV & movie service Unlimovie.tv to the device with no jailbreak required. The service, which is currently in beta, requires users to manually change the DNS on their device (easily accessible from within Settings) in order to access its digital TV service directly through Apple’s own Trailers app. It isn’t the first hack of its kind: Just a couple weeks back, one of our favorite media servers, Plex, arrived on Apple TV without a jailbreak through what appeared to be a similar hack of the stock Trailers app....

Here’s Hannah John-Kamen’s Game Of Thrones character Ornela explained. The TV adaptation of Game Of Thrones was almost doomed right out of the gates. Bringing George R.R. Martin’s epic novels to the screen was always going to be a daunting task, but the original pilot episode was famously so bad its never been released. Chief complaints of this episode is that it was leaden and dull, with character relationships being so poorly defined test audiences didn’t realize Cersei and Jaime Lannister were sister and brother....

Hermione Granger is one of the three main characters of the Harry Potter series, and she’s loved by many fans. Hermione is smart, capable, and very brave, and she is central to helping Harry defeat Voldemort in many ways. While Hermione has a lot of great qualities, she also has some flaws as without them she wouldn’t be a very interesting character. She definitely had moments where she could be incredibly annoying, especially when it came to being a little bit of a know-it-all....

Harry Potter is one of the most universally beloved fandoms/franchises of all time. Fans across the globe have found role models and reflections of themselves and their loved ones in some of the more iconic series. But not all of the characters in the series have been seen in such a positive light by all who read the books and watch the films. Though many fans have rather controversial opinions on some of the main characters in the Harry Potter series (i....